Highlights The prospect of consciousness in artificial intelligence (AI) systems increasingly demands attention given recent advances in AI and increasing capacity to reproduce features of the brain that are associated with consciousness. There are risks of both under- and over-attribution of consciousness to AI systems, entailing a need for methods to assess whether current or future AI systems are likely to be conscious. We argue that progress can be made by drawing out the implications of some neuroscientific theories of consciousness. We outline a method that involves deriving indicators from theories and using them to assess particular AI systems. Abstract Rapid progress in artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities has drawn fresh attention to the prospect of consciousness in AI. There is an urgent need for rigorous methods to assess AI systems for consciousness, but significant uncertainty about relevant issues in consciousness science. We present a method for assessing AI systems for consciousness that involves exploring what follows from existing or future neuroscientific theories of consciousness. Indicators derived from such theories can be used to inform credences about whether particular AI systems are conscious. This method allows us to make meaningful progress because some influential theories of consciousness, notably including computational functionalist theories, have implications for AI that can be investigated empirically.